Page 20 of Our Broken Pieces
“I can get a hotel room or an AirBnB.”
“You’re not staying somewhere random, Gigi.”
“I don’t want to be a burden to you, too, Marcus.” Her eyes drop to the floor.
“You’re never a burden.”
“I feel like one right now. I’m sorry, it’s just you were the first person I thought to call.”
“G, you can always call me.” I place my hands on the sides of her head and pause to make her look me in the eyes. I purposefully deepen my voice and speak slowly. “I wasn’t asking if you wanted to stay with me. I was telling you that youwillstay with me. Do you see the difference?”
Her eyes change and scan my face. “I’ve never heard you talk like that before.”
“I needed you to listen to me.” I drop my hands from her hair.
“I’ll start packing.”
“Bring it all out here and I’ll start taking it down to my truck”
“Okay.” She heads to the bedroom and I follow.
We packed and loaded Gigi’s things and got to my place two hours later. I back into the garage and turn off the truck. Gigi pulls into the driveway and gets out of her car, cat carrier in tow. I’m not the best with cats; you never quite know what they’re thinking. But I can’t tell her she can’t have the thing here. Poor woman has been through enough in the past few hours.
“How are you doing?”
“I feel a little numb.”
“Well, I can’t say the same.”
“I’m afraid of what I’m going to do when the anger sets in.” She gives a small laugh.
“I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that.” I smile at her.
She huffs out a breath, flinging her free hand toward the bed of my truck. “Is it okay if we unload everything tomorrow? I only need that one bag for the time being. I’m just done right now.”
“Yeah, we can do that. I need to set up the spare room for you. You can take a shower and get ready for bed in the meantime.”
She nods, walking into the house, and I follow, carrying her duffel bag into the kitchen, closing the garage door on my way in. We walk to the spare room, and she pauses in the small hallway.
“Do you need a hug?” I don’t think I’ve ever asked anyone that before.
She nods, so I set her bag down and I pull her to me. “It will be okay, princess. I think this might actually be a good thing.”
“It doesn’t feel good at the moment.”
I rub her neck, and we stand in silence for a moment. The need to calm her is almost overwhelming.
Finally she breaks away, rubbing her hand across her nose. “I need a shower.”
I pick up her bag. “I’ll put Ethel in your room. You know where everything is in the bathroom.”
I hand her the bag, cautiously grabbing the handle to the cat carrier. She turns toward the bathroom, and before she opens the door, she looks back at me.
“Thank you for everything tonight, Marcus. I’m really lucky you’re my friend.”
“I’m always here for you, G.”
“Same.”
